Speaker 1: And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talk.
Speaker 2: We gonna join right now by a man that is
Speaker 2: part of my favorite baseball show on MLB Network, that's
Speaker 2: MLB Central with Robert Flores and Lauren Shahati. He is
Speaker 2: the manager of Team USA, and I feel like being
Speaker 2: a Jersey guy, he can relate to this with Kershaw
Speaker 2: joining Team USA and the World Baseball Classic when the
Speaker 2: call was made uptown and the big Man joined the band.
Speaker 2: That's the one and only Mark de Rosa. Dro Thanks
Speaker 2: a lot for coming on the show. Appreciate it.
Speaker 3: First off, David, what an intro right there. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Second off, what a way to tie his career in
Speaker 1: a bow, right one of the greatest to ever do it.
Speaker 1: I remember when I was manager in twenty three, I
Speaker 1: tried to get him to pitch for us, then it
Speaker 1: didn't work out. I felt like I learned a lot
Speaker 1: from that roster and and what this tournament needs to
Speaker 1: get to the finish line. And when I was sitting
Speaker 1: back and looking at it and putting this roster together,
Speaker 1: I called him probably i'd say about three weeks ago,
Speaker 1: and I think I caught him a little bit off guard.
Speaker 1: When I called him and I kind of walked him
Speaker 1: through why I thought it made sense and if he
Speaker 1: would be willing to do it, because I didn't know
Speaker 1: coming off the World Series if he just wanted to
Speaker 1: end it like that. But I thought one opportunity to
Speaker 1: get him in a USA jersey. It was sitting there
Speaker 1: with Andy Pettitt and going through it. I'm like, Andy,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call him and see where his head's at,
Speaker 1: and and he was. He was down to give it
Speaker 1: a try. He wanted to see if his arm still
Speaker 1: felt good.
Speaker 3: He wanted a.
Speaker 1: Couple of days to go out and throw and see
Speaker 1: what he felt like. And he said he would call
Speaker 1: me back, and yeah, right around Christmas time. So it
Speaker 1: was it was a perfect opportunity and a perfect present
Speaker 1: for us to kind of to kind of make this work.
Speaker 1: And listen, I know you've got a ton of questions,
Speaker 1: but it works on so many levels. It gives him
Speaker 1: an opportunity to put the jersey on. It gives the
Speaker 1: likes of Scooble and Schemes and Logan Webb and Joe
Speaker 1: Ryan and all the young pitchers on this staff a
Speaker 1: chance to learn from him. And like I said, and
Speaker 1: we can talk about it at length.
Speaker 3: Why he makes sense for the roster.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting you already you know, shot down what
Speaker 2: many people believed something that it was Kershaw that drove this,
Speaker 2: that approached you, it was you that wanted to have
Speaker 2: him on the team.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think I'm he was. We walked down this
Speaker 1: road in twenty three for a while to try and
Speaker 1: get him cleared and get him on the mound for us,
Speaker 1: and it just didn't make sense for you know, his
Speaker 1: side and all the parties involved, and I was upset
Speaker 1: because I wanted him to be a part of it
Speaker 1: this time going through it. There's guard rails on how
Speaker 1: many pitches guys can throw. There's guard rails with regards
Speaker 1: to the starting pitchers that are on this roster being
Speaker 1: built up to a certain because we don't want to
Speaker 1: upset them getting ready for opening Day, and this certainly
Speaker 1: kind of puts a different obstacle in place for them.
Speaker 1: And I just remember in twenty three we ran into
Speaker 1: a situation where both starters that went out to Mexico
Speaker 1: Mexico didn't pitch well and we had to cover the
Speaker 1: rest of that game with our basically our entire relief
Speaker 1: corps and based on the parameters and guardrails in place
Speaker 1: with the teams and trying to keep these guys healthy,
Speaker 1: lance Lynn had to bow up in a bit way
Speaker 1: for us and pitch his tailoff against Canada to kind
Speaker 1: of give us a chance to reset the bullpen and
Speaker 1: be able to follow all the guidelines that were given
Speaker 1: to us by the parent clubs. We didn't want to
Speaker 1: run into that same situation this time, so we will
Speaker 1: have eight starters on the staff and Clayton will basically
Speaker 1: be like an emergency longman for us in case one
Speaker 1: of those situations arises, where he can go in reset
Speaker 1: our bullpen, reset how we're going to do things, and
Speaker 1: gives us kind of a safety net for not getting
Speaker 1: caught with our pants down like we almost did last
Speaker 1: time because of all the rules and regulations that are
Speaker 1: surrounding the WBC.
Speaker 3: Listen.
Speaker 1: I don't expect him to go out and pitch the
Speaker 1: championship game. I would love that, but I also understand
Speaker 1: where he's at in his career, and you know where
Speaker 1: he is at in his life. But I thought it
Speaker 1: would be he'd be the perfect guy to kind of
Speaker 1: fill that role for us and to be kind of
Speaker 1: like a pseudo pitching coach with Andy Pettitt and also
Speaker 1: get him on the bump in some spot places.
Speaker 2: That's amazing. Team USA manager Mark de Rosa is joining us, obviously,
Speaker 2: you see him during the season on MLB Central on
Speaker 2: MLB Network and look Mark. I guess that kind of
Speaker 2: just puts it all into context on how you plan
Speaker 2: to use them your vision for him. But I've heard
Speaker 2: from guys that come back from the World Baseball Classic
Speaker 2: and being part of Team USA that it's kind of
Speaker 2: a measuring stick for everybody and also an opportunity for
Speaker 2: these guys to pick the brain of the best in
Speaker 2: the game. How much is that playing into your vision
Speaker 2: as well for guys like you mentioned Schooble and schemes
Speaker 2: to pick the brain of Kershaw.
Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 1: Because when you're looking at a situation like this, there's
Speaker 1: not too many current players that are going to be
Speaker 1: willing to potentially not throw in a game or be
Speaker 1: asked to only throw an inning or two innings. These
Speaker 1: guys want to be ramped up to get ready for
Speaker 1: the regular season. So when we really went through it,
Speaker 1: it would be a big ask for a current player
Speaker 1: to fill the spot that Clayton's filling, and when you
Speaker 1: go through some of the name I just thought he
Speaker 1: was the perfect guy. Like I want to be around him.
Speaker 1: Our staff wants to be around them. I've gotten to
Speaker 1: know him since twenty twenty three, kind of going down
Speaker 1: the process the first time. He's he's a man's man,
Speaker 1: and I knew schemes in Schooble, like I said, were
Speaker 1: guys that wanted to learn from him. I remember the
Speaker 1: first thing Paul Skeen said to me when he agreed
Speaker 1: to be a part of this pitching staff. He goes,
Speaker 1: I want you to surround me with the best. I
Speaker 1: don't want to be teaching everybody what I do and
Speaker 1: how I go after it. I want to learn. I
Speaker 1: want to get better from this process while competing for
Speaker 1: our country. So I was sitting there with Andy, like
Speaker 1: I said, right around Christmas time, and I'm like, Andy,
Speaker 1: if we're going to put a guy in this long
Speaker 1: man spot and cover us because there was no one
Speaker 1: in our bullpen last time that can go north of
Speaker 1: thirty pitches right that the starters can only go sixty
Speaker 1: five pitches in pool play, so it kind of limits
Speaker 1: what you're capable of doing in an emergency situation. I said,
Speaker 1: if we're going to fill this role, the perfect guy
Speaker 1: to do it is Clayton, because we all want to
Speaker 1: be around him, we all want to learn from him.
Speaker 1: He will go down as one of the greatest to
Speaker 1: ever do it. And I just thought, if he's willing,
Speaker 1: that it would be the perfect addition to the team.
Speaker 1: And when I called him, I didn't know what I.
Speaker 3: Was going to get.
Speaker 1: To be honest with you, Dave, I you know every
Speaker 1: call that I've made, and you know you could write
Speaker 1: a book about all the nose we've gotten, the reasons why, all.
Speaker 3: The yes is.
Speaker 1: It's some of my highlight of my life making these calls.
Speaker 1: But when I called Clayton, I kind of said, hey, listen,
Speaker 1: I have this idea where you make a ton of
Speaker 1: sense for our roster. I'd like walk you through it
Speaker 1: if you're interested. And he's like, give it to me,
Speaker 1: And I kind of walked him through it and he's like, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm in I think I want to do it. Give
Speaker 1: me forty eight hours to think about it. Let me
Speaker 1: talk to my wife and see where she's at with it.
Speaker 1: And then he called me back two days later. He
Speaker 1: goes if you want to do it, I want. I
Speaker 1: want to be a part of it. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: let's go.
Speaker 2: That's amazing. That's an electric phone call right there. One
Speaker 2: other question for you. You know, Kershaw has referenced his
Speaker 2: body in a self deprecating way the last few months
Speaker 2: of the season as he's just trying to get this
Speaker 2: carcass going. He's referenced his body as a carcass. Has
Speaker 2: he started Does that mean he has now ramped up
Speaker 2: his off season throwing. I've heard he's only playing catch
Speaker 2: with Charlie. What have you heard as far as him
Speaker 2: trying to get that carcass ready?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think he scared Andy Pettit a little bit saying, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm just going to work out with my son and throw.
Speaker 1: I think Andy was expecting him to get ready like
Speaker 1: he's preparing for a season.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, he knows what he needs to do
Speaker 1: as long as his arm feels okay. We don't expect
Speaker 1: him to light up the raid our gun by any stretch.
Speaker 1: I think this is a perfect opportunity for us to
Speaker 1: feel like we have an emergency kind of if it
Speaker 1: hits the fan, we know we have Clayton there to
Speaker 1: be able to kind of bail us and reset us,
Speaker 1: And what an opportunity. I would love nothing more than
Speaker 1: for everything to go kind of seamless according to plan,
Speaker 1: and we're able to get him on the mat in like,
Speaker 1: you know, a clinching situation and for the world to
Speaker 1: see him out on the bump and pitch a you know,
Speaker 1: a big inning for us to kind of celebrate, that
Speaker 1: would be like perfect. But I think it's more this
Speaker 1: is a situation he feels comfortable in. If an emergency,
Speaker 1: we can put him in there for out however long,
Speaker 1: the sixty five pitches or an inning or two innings,
Speaker 1: whatever that may be. I just felt like he's the
Speaker 1: perfect guy to serve as like kind of a de
Speaker 1: facto captain with Aaron Judge and if if in an
Speaker 1: emergency we need him, we could kind of kind of
Speaker 1: reset everything with him.
Speaker 2: Sounds perfect. I know everybody in LA is excited. I
Speaker 2: know this has generated more buzz for the World Baseball Classics.
Speaker 2: So great idea by the Team USA skipper Mark De Rosa,
Speaker 2: and I have a vision for you when you first
Speaker 2: appear on MLB Central Training, you should wear your Team
Speaker 2: USA uniform, just full pants everything. Just hop on that
Speaker 2: couch with Lauren and Roe, flow and let them know
Speaker 2: who the skipper is.
Speaker 3: Dave, the only thing thinking about is we have to win.
Speaker 2: This, oh baby, through no doubt.
Speaker 1: That's really bottom line. I know Dominican, I know Japan,
Speaker 1: I know every other country is trying to get after this.
Speaker 1: My juices are rolling. I know it's the seed I
Speaker 1: sit in. I understand it from the parent club's perspective,
Speaker 1: how they just want their guys back healthy from But
Speaker 1: from where I'm sitting, man, this is the most important
Speaker 1: thing I'm doing.
Speaker 3: So let's go.
Speaker 2: Let's go. You got a few good Dodgers, including the
Speaker 2: most slutch hitter in baseball, and Will Smith as one
Speaker 2: of your catchers. So it's gonna be awesome to watch
Speaker 2: Team USA make their run to the gold medal and
Speaker 2: the World Baseball Classic. Mark de Rosa, thank you so
Speaker 2: much for coming on on a day that we had
Speaker 2: exciting breaking news with Clayton Kershaw joining Team USA. Love you, Mark,
Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
Speaker 3: All Right, David, you're the man. I'll talk to you, buddy,